KOLKATA: A Delhi-bound Air India plane suffered a rear tyre burst while it was about to taxi for take-off at Kolkata airport on Saturday morning. The aircraft had to return to the parking bay to offload the passengers before the engineering team could work on it. The plane finally took off nearly five hours later. The incident happened with Air India flight AI-402 at 10.20am when the flight with 226 passengers and 10 crew members was preparing to take off as per its scheduled departure at 10.25am.
“When it was about to taxi, one of its rear tyres burst with a bang. Usually, pilots check brake efficiency after pushback by applying the brakes. This appears to have led to jamming of the wheels and it burst,” said an AI captain.
Boeing B787 Dreamliner aircraft that was doing the Delhi flight has an electrical brake system unlike other planes like Boeing B737 or Airbus A320 that have hydraulic brake systems. While a rear tyre burst does not usually pose a threat as there are four wheels in each of the two landing gears to the rear of an aircraft. Damage to the nose wheel poses a greater risk.
“Usually, tyres are inspected after every landing and before a take-off. But still, the upper rivet of a tyre does come off at times. There have been instances in which the ATC has alerted pilots after rubber pieces have been found on the runway following a flight’s take-off,” a captain said.
The fight finally took off with 191 passengers at 3.52pm.
